Reverse chokers: India don’t feel pressure anymore, and that makes them very dangerous

There are three Asian teams in the semi-finals of the 2017 Champions Trophy. It is not the first time it has happened – India, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan were in the semi-finals in 2011. This time though, the tournament is being held in the United Kingdom. The other key difference is the sheer un-Asian nature through which one of these three teams has qualified: India.

As South Africa imploded over a mix of run-outs and sheer terror against India on Sunday at the Oval, the daggers came out. In global tournaments, the “choke” word exists like a ghost over South Africa. It affects them, it horrifies them, it hangs over them like a shroud. And after another calamitous implosion where they somehow managed to comically collapse from 140/2 to 191 all out, the power of that spectre will only become stronger.

India are the reverse chokers

And yet, consider their opponents. If it was a must-win game for South Africa, it was for India too. Considering the extent to which cricketing passions run in the subcontinent, you can even rightfully argue that Virat Kohli’s men had greater expectations to contend with. They were coming off an unanticipated loss against Sri Lanka. Another loss on Sunday meant elimination at the group stage. Imagine that prospect for one fleeting second: India crashing out at the group stage. Remember, the repercussions that followed when India crashed out of the World Cup at the group stage in 2007?

Effigies would have been burnt, reams of newsprint would be published, critics would tear into the team and prime times on news channels over the next few weeks or so would be spent dissecting the loss. Imagine that kind of pressure before a big match. Imagine you’re a player in the Indian dressing room trying to come to terms with that kind of stress.

But not once did India or Kohli even look slightly perturbed by what was riding on this match. In fact, in the press conference before Sunday’s tie, the captain said he “craved” these occasions. You could see that it wasn’t some attempt to trying to brush away the pressure. He genuinely loves the occasion. The big stage. And it’s rubbed off on this team he is leading. Not for them is to wallow under self-doubt and mutual recrimination.

The ‘keep it cool’ policy

There was something else he said which now has greater significance after Sunday’s result. “The team that treats the game as normal as possible is the team that’s in a better position to get the right result,” said Kohli. “A lot of times, teams come in and they want to do something special and end up messing up the game in important situations”

From 140/2 to 191 all out, South Africa seemed like they were doing exactly the opposite of what Kohli had cautioned against.

But, it’s important to remember that India haven’t always been like this. Those who watch this incredibly well-drilled Indian team may not remember now, but there were times when India played liked headless chickens when the pressure was on. Cast your mind back to that infamous 1996 World Cup semi-final against Sri Lanka. Or under Sourav Ganguly’s reign when they made a celebrated resurgence but still lost in nine finals. One of those was that 2003 World Cup final.

It took the arrival of “Captain Cool” MS Dhoni to show a success-starved nation how to keep their heads in a crisis, but now under Virat Kohli’s reign, you can actually see how well it has borne fruit. In recent times, India have become a team that is on top of their game, mentally. In their past few global tournaments, not once have they even looked like a team overwhelmed by the occasion, even when they have lost.

Their recent results against Pakistan provide more evidence of this trend – where India have approached these high-pressure games with relaxed simplicity, Pakistan, admittedly the much weaker team in recent times, have made things even more difficult for themselves by getting carried away under the burden of expectations.

Mechanical precision

It’s a commodity which is rare in cricket. South Africa are obviously the pallbearers when it comes to choking under pressure, but Pakistan have never enjoyed the spotlights being trained on them, seemingly excelling only when nothing is expected from them. Bangladesh have risen up the rankings, but still remain susceptible to immense brainfades when the heat is on – remember that World Twenty20 match in 2016 against India? And even new-age England, for all their talk of fearless cricket, lost it in the final over of that World Twenty20 final in 2016 when Carlos Brathwaite decided to lay into Ben Stokes.

Against South Africa, India’s performance could only be described as mechanical precision. They did not do anything special – Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah stuck to their lines and kept squeezing South Africa. Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin continued with a similar strategy and India just sat and waited. Soon enough, South Africa’s combustion came of their own doing.

In the decade of Australia’s dominance in the early 2000’s, one thing that stood about that team was their big-game temperament. When a big match arrived, they were switched on. In fact, they went beyond their best in these occasions. That was what created their aura of invincibility. If you faced Australia in a big match, you knew that they were coming at you and coming at you hard. More often than not, that pressure itself would lead to the match being lost in the head before the toss.

India are not Australia, not yet. But they’re getting there. The bigger the occasion, the calmer they are. And in high-level international sport, half the battle is won there itself.